Fireside magic at Number 7
Just heard that The Star Tree has been nominated for the Kate Greenaway Award for outstanding illustration. It is an incredible endorsement just to be on the list at this point. I am thrilled and even more excited to be at Number 7 tomorrow!
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On Saturday 22 October I will be by the fireside at Number 7 in Dulverton from 1 – 5pm. It is one of my most favourite places in the world. I love the atmosphere of Dulverton itself and Number 7 is a unique combination of all that is beautiful (including its owners Jan and Davina)
I will be taking (if they don’t mind) paper and pastels and I think also scraperboard to play with.
Last time I was there with Jackie Morris celebrating Little Evie in the Wild Wood and it will be odd and not quite right not to have her there!
Elementum at Waterstones with Wyl Menmuir, Jay Armstrong and Catherine Hyde
You are warmly invited to join us at Waterstones, Truro from 7 – 9pm tomorrow 18th October as we talk about the influence of landscape, both real and imagined, with Man Booker-longlisted author Wyl Menmuir and Jay Armstrong, founder and editor of Elementum Magazine.
In issue 2 – “Edge” I am working on images arising from a conversation between Wyl Menmuir and Rob Cowen author of Common Ground. Much of my work deals with the idea of meeting points – between earth and air, land and water, dream and consciousness whilst both writers are concerned with ideas of margin places and our need to connect and become immersed in the land, in wild places where we find them.
Tickets can be bought from Waterstones Bookshop, Truro. They are £2 and include a glass of wine or elderflower.
“The Owl at the Window”
Listen to some of Dave Sugarbeet’s magical tune here: “The Owl at the Window“
So delighted that Dave Sugarbeet and Jonathon Coudrille will be playing live at the launch!
Edge of the World Bookshop
I am really looking forward to this Thursday’s event at the wonderful Edge of the World Bookshop to celebrate the launch of the new journal Elementum. I will be talking about process and inspiration with Jay Armstrong. Conversations with Jay are always a joy – with her unique vision and extraordinary talent for bringing people together she has created a beautiful Journal that I am thrilled to be part of.
Jay and myself will be talking about storytelling with pictures and discussing inspiration, processes and decisions.
Come and have a glass of wine or elderflower and find out more about this innovative new nature and art journal.
Books
The lovely thing about books is that they seem to appear just like magic, complete and smelling beautiful.
They are an invitation to open a door and disappear into worlds where the impossible becomes possible and the interior world of your imagination takes flight and creates landscapes that are vivid and real.
In the Box of Delights by John Masefield, Kay Harker opens a small box and enters a world that shimmers and brims with possibility. His senses are heightened, intensified and dreamlike. He returns to find his adventures have lasted only a minute or two in real time but in the world of the Box he has travelled for hours.
Perhaps this is why I love both images and words. When I work I aim to capture as intensely as I am able the emotional sensation of what I am seeing whether it is in the physical world or the world of poetry, music or literature. When I was at college it was not considered good practice to title work in anything more than a brief description or a number but I have also always had a need to put words with the image. I like the intrigue – the clue to the story but also the trick of playing with the sensation of the sound – the sensuality of the words reacting with the image. I also like the fact that it is a little sly – you can take them or leave them, but I have dropped them in anyway.
Illustration for me has been a massive learning curve. I had a lot of preconceived ideas about how it was done before I was asked to interpret The Princess’ Blankets by Carol Ann Duffy. It took the confidence of Templar to tell me to just be myself and when the penny dropped I discovered that I had always “illustrated” in one sense but the stories were my own. The most freeing part was being able to take liberties – things that I would never have done on canvas in case it was “illustrative” were suddenly absolutely alright.
I also thought that having written the story finding the images would be easy but actually it took a long time and a real struggle to find the visual language that enhanced the words – not just copied them. It has been joyous to create picture spreads that contains words and something I want to explore further.
“The Star Tree” story is a simple journey of there and back again.
I think it is the hardest thing I have ever done.
An evening with Catherine Hyde at Waterstones, Truro
I’m happy to say that the rescheduled launch for The Star Tree at Waterstones, Truro will take place next Tuesday 27th September at 7pm.
(hopefully it will not be a day of storms!)
Musician Dave Sugabeet will also be there playing live the theme from his wonderful soundscape for the Star Tree “The Owl in the Window”
Guardian Review
Another great review for Star Tree in the children’s books roundup by Imogen Russell Williams in last weekends Guardian.
“Another dreamy, lulling story, in a more grown-up pointillist mode, is Catherine Hyde’s The Star Tree (Frances Lincoln). Hyde’s first foray as both author and illustrator is a transporting poetic account of a small girl’s imaginative voyage on a moonlit midsummer night, helped along by an owl, a hare, a bear and a stag.”
It is wonderful to be included amongst this list of writers and illustrators.
The rest of the year
I have had a lovely break in France and am back now to a sunny Cornwall, a pile of holiday washing and millions of emails to wade through. As part of getting my brain back into gear and ordering my studio time here is a list of shows and events for the rest of the year.
13th September: Launch of The Star Tree at Waterstones, Truro – more details to follow soon.
20 – 23rd October: Affordable Art Fair, Battersea represented by Lighthouse Gallery, Penzance.
22nd October: Book signing event at Number 7, Dulverton. Number 7 is a delightful Aladdin’s Cave full of magical things and I can’t wait to visit them again.
12th November: “The Running of the deer” solo show at Foss Fine Art in Battersea – slightly later than previously stated but maybe better for being closer to Christmas as the theme of the work is all things Winter. Inspired by poems and traditional carols it is going to be a sumptuous celebration of all that I love about the changing of the seasons, the shortening of the days, the lighting of candles and fires.
I will also be showing original spreads from the Star Tree and the books will be available.
Star Tree review
This wonderful review at http://awfullybigreviews.blogspot.co.uk/ is by award winning author Saviour Pirotta whose Firebird I was lucky enough to illustrate in 2010.
I have to confess that I’m a bit biased when it comes to Catherine Hyde’s work. She illustrated my 2010 version of Firebird, which earned us some fantastic reviews and an Aesop Accolade in the US.
Catherine had already illustrated Carol Ann Duffy’s The Princess’ Blankets before she worked with me and she went on to team up with Jackie Morris for Evie in the Wild Wood. This, however, is the first book that she has written and illustrated herself.
Here is a dreamy, lyrical story of a girl who makes a wish on the moon. It is midnight on midsummer’s eve, a time when all wishes come true. And so starts a magical picaresque journey that will take Miranda from her warm seaside home to the frozen North where the fabulous star tree grows. She is helped on her way by magical creatures of the night: an owl, a hare, a bear, a stag and finally a silver-feathered goose. Will she find the magical star tree?
Catherine Hyde’s pictures are always mesmerising and here she employs a pontillist style to great effect, giving the book a very organic feel. It feels almost like some of the pictures formed naturally on the page, like lichen patterns on old stone or cherry blossom petals on a late-spring lawn. The text, almost a poem, is carefully crafted, inviting you to turn the page and accompany Miranda on her enchanted journey.
All in all this is a wonderful bedtime treat you would want to revisit again and again, both for the story and the enticing pictures.
Saviour Pirotta’s next book Ballet Stories for Young Children will be published by Orchard in October 2016.
Follow him on twitter @spirotta
Like him on facebook https://www.facebook.com/spirotta
Website http://www.spirotta.com
Back to Cornwall
Art in Action was amazing, joyous, exhausting and exhilarating.
The first day saw just short of 8000 visitors with spectacular numbers overall.
I’m hoping that the rumours that Art in Action will return but evolve into something quite different materialise.
